Mumbai: Equities extended gains for the fourth straight session today, backed by a slew of strong earnings amid easing inflationary pressure with the benchmark Nifty ending at multi-week high on National Stock Exchange.
Financial, energy, healthcare, metal, auto and infra counters saw large-scale buying activity even as mid and small -cap stocks recovered sharply after overnight sell-off. Except technology, all sectoral indices posted handsome gains. The 50-issue CNX Nifty spurted by 52.15 points, or 0.67 per cent, over the last close to conclude at 7,791.70, its highest level in three weeks.
Strong earnings reported by India Inc so far for the April-June period and sustained capital inflows as well as expectations of big ticket announcements in a bid to kick-start sluggish economy mainly boosted sentiments. Overseas investors bought shares worth Rs 718.27 crore yesterday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.
Good news on inflation front also brought cheers to traders and investors alike. Headline inflation slipped to a five-month low of 5.19 per cent in July mainly on account of drop in prices of some food articles, vegetables and protein rich items. The price level was at 5.43 per cent in June and 5.84 per cent in July 2013.
Meanwhile, other Asian and emerging equities ended mixed amid caution following disappointing macro data from China and Germany.
“The easing geo-political tensions amid expectations that US Federal Reserve will move slowly to raise interest rates in the wake of sluggish macro economic indicators appears to be provided relief to the markets,” a trader said. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, L&T, Tata Motors, Reliance, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Axis Bank and Tata Steel were among the top index gainers.
Key laggards included Hero Moto, Hindalco, HCL Tech, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, HUL, SBIN and Kotak Bank. Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 14,959.33 crore from Rs 17,342.02 crore yesterday. A total of 9,029.95 lakh shares changed hands in 68,25,284 trades, while total market capitalisation stood at Rs 88,35,755 crore.
